Police: Driver in fatal crash said he thought he hit a deer

WASHINGTON TWP. - A Gloucester County teacher facing homicide charges in a hit-and-run accident told authorities he thought his SUV struck a deer instead of a person, according to court papers.

Nicholas Jahn, 33, fell asleep while driving a Honda Pilot south on Black Horse Pike in Turnersville around 3:20 a.m. Saturday, the county prosecutor’s office said.

He struck a pedestrian, 44-year-old Jawana Wilcox, who died amid a debris field of broken vehicle parts in the Golden Key Motel parking lot near the Ganttown Road intersection, according to an affidavit of probable cause from the Washington Township Police Department.

Wilcox’s body lay on the ground for about 3½ hours, until a motel resident found her and police were notified around 7 a.m., authorities said.

Wilcox, a resident of either Collingswood or Mount Holly, had been carrying a suitcase on the southbound shoulder of Route 42 when she was struck, the prosecutor’s office said. A medical examiner determined she died of blunt head trauma.

Vehicle parts left at the scene led investigators to conclude a Honda Pilot struck Wilcox, the affidavit said.

Police looked at surveillance videos that showed an SUV turn onto Fries Mill Road but not go past Watson Drive, according to the affidavit. “Because of this the surrounding developments were checked,” the affidavit said.

A patrolman spotted a purple Honda Pilot parked in the driveway of Jahn’s home on Amherst Court, less than a mile from the crime scene, the affidavit said. It had damage on the front passenger side, police said.

Jahn answered the door and told detectives he was on Black Horse Pike the previous evening and “thought that he struck a deer” after he “dozed off while driving,” the affidavit said. He also admitted leaving the scene, according to the affidavit.

Authorities arrested Jahn on charges of vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of a fatal crash and endangering a victim. He was held in Salem County Jail.

Jahn is a physical education teacher at Durand Academy, a private school for special-needs children in Woodbury.

He has been suspended until his legal proceedings conclude, according to the school’s executive director, Raymond Cristofoletti, who added that students were offered counseling to “cope with the unsettling revelations.”

“Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the victim’s family and friends,” Cristofoletti said in an email.

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